Talk:Exapostilarion

From OrthodoxWiki

Revision as of 23:38, April 15, 2007 by ASDamick(Talk | contribs)(New page: "Exapostilarion" is how it is spelled in Bishop Kallistos' texts. It is also spelled this way in the Boston texts, Fr. Ephrem Lash's translations, and in the Menaion and Octoechos by St. ...)

"Exapostilarion" is how it is spelled in Bishop Kallistos' texts. It is also spelled this way in the Boston texts, Fr. Ephrem Lash's translations, and in the Menaion and Octoechos by St. John of Kronstadt Press.

It's of no major importance to me either way, but I am convinced that the ei rendering is preferable here and of course more faithful to the Greek, which uses ει. FWIW, the plural Google ratio comes to 1.57:1 (i to ei), while the singular is 1:3.66 (i to ei), which indicates that the singular is used on the web far more than the plural, and when it's used, it is much more overwhelmingly toward the ei.

Exaposteilarion is the spelling used by the Nassar "Five Pounder" (and thus pretty much almost everything in the N.A. Antiochian Archdiocese), along with most of the books issued by the GOA. So, in terms of popular use, I would say that exaposteilarion wins out.

Now, the argument of which is the "best" translation is an interesting debate that is of course subjective in a lot of ways. (I'm of the opinion that "mode" is a better translation than "tone" for the Greek ichos, but "tone" clearly wins in terms of popular use in English.) I am certainly of the opinion that most of the translations you name above are of the highest quality available, though our policy here is most often to use whatever is the most commonly recognized name for something. That's why the Google test helps.

So, I won't insist on the ei if you are hostile to its use, but I do believe that, based on the evidence and how it matches up with our conventions, the ei is the best choice. —Fr. Andrewtalkcontribs 16:38, April 15, 2007 (PDT)